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Is Sony's behind-the-scenes involvement in a Kickstarter campaign concerning? We look at it from all angles and try to answer the question: Is a large company's involvement with crowdfunding a big deal, or is this only a scandal fit for conspiracy theorists?

Ever since Yu Suzuki dropped the bomb on Tuesday about Shenmue III, he's been busy visiting magazines, Youtube channels, Reddit, and Twitch spreading his gospel. There's a lot of questions being asked but only a few (conflicting) answers. To help keep things straight, here's a simple cheat sheet of everything we know so far.

Among all of the excitement at this year's E3, a game was announced—humbly—an hour into Sony's showcase: Shenmue III. When the words were spoken, most in the audience were unaffected...but some wept and others screamed—these were the few who understood the full weight of what had just happened.

Within one hour, Shenmue III had broken not only Kickerstarter records, but Kickstarter itself, crippling the servers within its first hour. It achieved its 31-day goal on the first morning of its first day.

So...what the hell is Shenmue? No worries. We've created a primer that not only answers that, but also explains why you should care.